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The American Anglican Council's conference, "A Place to Stand," ended on Thursday with one bishop describing his resistance of the Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop, and with 2,700 people pledging other forms of future resistance.

Bishop Stephen Jecko of the Diocese of Florida announced Thursday that he will reschedule his successor's consecration rather than allow what he described as a media circus. Jecko has been in conflict with Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold on whether Griswold should preside at the consecration.

Griswold had planned to consecrate Samuel John Howard in Florida—generally a conservative diocese—only one day before consecrating Gene Robinson (the Episcopal Church's first openly gay man to be elected a bishop) in New Hampshire.

Griswold sees those back-to-back consecrations as symbolic of his pastoral care for the entire Episcopal Church, across theological differences. Jecko said Griswold's actions belie any claim to such comprehensive pastoral care.

Jecko read aloud from a letter to Griswold, telling conference participants that it was his third request that Griswold not attend the consecration. The service was scheduled to occur at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Jacksonville. But Bishop Victor Galeone of the Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine withdrew that welcome because of Griswold's media remarks about the supposed limited knowledge of Scripture's authors regarding the nature of homosexuality.

Jecko's letter did not specify a new date for the consecration.

Jecko, who read the letter from a laptop computer, stressed that his wording could change slightly when he circulated it via the Internet and print.

Jecko's voice was steady but pointed. "Your self-perception as a reconciler to the entire Episcopal Church is compromised and no longer tenable," he wrote to Griswold.

Jecko wrote that Griswold must live with the consequences of his support for Robinson's consecration and for blessing same-sex couples.

"The authority of the Scriptures, not merely their interpretation, is the issue for Christians," Jecko wrote.

Jecko said he asks a question of all potential clergy under his care—"Do you look good on wood?"—to convey the high costs (sometimes including martyrdom) of Christian discipleship.

Regarding his own answer to that question, Jecko deadpanned, "I have a feeling I'm about to find out."

Griswold did not respond immediately to Jecko's letter, though he did offer a general statement on the AAC conference.

"Baptism establishes an indissoluble bond between those who are baptized and the Risen Christ," Griswold worte. "So too baptism binds us together in such a way that we cannot say to one another 'I have no need of you.'

"It therefore concerns me deeply when Christians use inflammatory rhetoric when speaking of one another or issue ultimatums. In such a climate, mutual pursuit of ways to build up rather than tear down is made more difficult, and the vast deposit of faith upon which we all agree is obscured."

"Can this church be birthed?"
During a closing ceremony filled with dramatic speeches, AAC president and executive director David Anderson further explained why the group declined Griswold's plans to send four observers to the conference.

Anderson, like Jecko, read his letter aloud. Anderson's letter explained that the conference would welcome any observers who would, like all other participants except for news media, sign the AAC's founding document, also called "A Place to Stand."

"In a way we still left the door open," Anderson said. "Is there no one on Executive Council [the church's board of directors] who could in good conscience sign such a basic statement of Christian faith? Is there no one at church headquarters?"

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October (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47